You may have heard the chatter on talk radio or in some shallow corner of the internet. Rich Hoffman wrote what I’m sure is a thoughtful piece (behind a subscriber wall) on the topic today for the Daily News.

Since Nick Foles failed to overtake Michael Vick in the Eagles’ quarterback competition, the team should just trade him.

Hofmann seems to believe Foles’ value will never be higher, and since nobody thinks the Birds are contenders this year anyway, the organization might as well cash in their chips so to speak. I suppose the logic for others is Foles had his shot, he lost, so Chip Kelly should pass him over in favor of Matt Barkley for the next opportunity.

Any of which seems incredibly short-sighted. But just for starters, where does this idea Foles has such tremendous trade value come from?

Perhaps this is a case where people have a tendency to overrate their own players. I can’t imagine there is a front office willing to surrender more than or even as much as the third-round pick the Eagles used on Foles last year, not for a largely unproven quarterback with one career win in the NFL , a quarterback who just lost an open competition at that. If he wasn’t worth that pick to teams in 2012, what has he done to demonstrate he’s worth it now?

Even if a head coach or GM sees some promise in Foles, or they’re simply desperate for a QB, would they actually be able to get the kid ready to start by Week 1? We’re not talking about some veteran who’s been around the block a few times, just hand him the playbook and send him out to the field. That sounds like a surefire way to ruin a young player to me. With a developing player like Foles, ideally you'd want him to go through camp and learn the offense first. And if he’s not going to be ready to play right away this year, why is anybody giving something up for him then?

That just doesn’t seem like a realistic option to me, short of giving Foles away – which I can’t imagine why anybody would want to do that.

Oh, sure, Vick is the starter right now. We’ll no doubt ride a wave of excitement leading up to September 9, with talk of how perfectly he fits Chip’s offense, what an amazing athlete is, how he was able to reinvent himself once again. The optimism around the Birds will feel like a breath of fresh air to be honest.

But how soon until Vick is injured again, and the next man has to step up? How soon before Vick begins to get sloppy with the football, when defenses start figuring him out?

Maybe neither of those scenarios plays out this time. Maybe Vick finally has everything figured out.

Maybe, but history suggests otherwise. The 30 snaps Vick has played during the preseason are not enough to erase 10 years of a career. The Eagles need to have another quarterback ready

From what I’ve seen, that’s not Barkley. I’m not sure what his future holds, but right now I see a kid who is clearly a few steps behind Vick and Foles. He’s made some nice throws, but it’s not like he’s been chewing up defenses – not at practice, not against backups using vanilla schemes in exhibition games. The game still moves a bit too fast for him right now. There is no sense in rushing him into action this season. He’s not ready. Maybe he never will be.

So why shouldn’t Foles get another opportunity if the situation comes to that? It’s not like he played himself out of the job. Vick has been explosive, nearly flawless, whereas Foles has merely looked capable. Capable is good though. If he gets on the field and the offense starts clicking, Kelly may never be able to pull him out of there.

It doesn’t have to be over for Foles in Philadelphia. If there were a team that was willing to knock their socks off, of course Howie Roseman has to listen. I don’t envision Foles is that much of a commodity around the NFL though, perhaps less so in August than he would be during the offseason. Plus, the Eagles will be in real trouble when it doesn’t work out with Vick and they only have Barkley to turn to.

Keep Foles around. At the very least, he is a competent backup. Who knows, he could be more. Chances are nobody is giving up a valuable draft pick for Nick Foles at this stage, so what is the advantage to moving him exactly?